Abell 39

Abell 39 is a low surface brightness planetary nebula in the constellation of Hercules. It is estimated to be about 6,800 light-years from earth and 4,600 light-years above the Galactic plane. It is almost perfectly spherical and also one of the largest known spheres with a radius of about 2.5 light-years. This is 8.5 hours of exposure, taken August 31 and September 1, 3, 10 and 12, 2013. It's going to require much more exposure to bring out the faintest details and all the hundreds of small background galaxies. Click on the photo for a larger view. This is an image taken with my Hyperion Astrograph and guided with CCDAutopilot.